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Dog Engages in Ancient Mind Control Techniques – Part 1

Every night for the last seven year, I’ve asked my husband, Stephen, the same question: “Can Aughe sleep with us tonight?”

And every night his response has been the same emphatic, “No dogs in the bed.”

I think Stephen thinks my question is another one of my lame attempts at humor. But the truth it, my persistent inquiry is a cry for help. Aughe has cast an evil spell over me, which has resulted in me going ga-ga over her. To anyone who has ever seen my dog, it’s perfectly evident that she is a capable practitioner of some ancient canine voodoo by which she has gained complete control of my mind. I have just enough independent thought left to understand that I’ve been had…done in…putty in her paws. And now Aughe is working on “her daddy.”

Irresistible.

Aughe came into our lives quite by accident. (In hindsight, the suspicious circumstances now appear part of her devious scheme to acquire a life of luxury through unscrupulous means.) A few years ago, my son, Jackson, and I were in the market for a dog, despite my husband’s long-practiced “no dogs” mantra. We had decided to undertake a long-term, thoughtful search for exactly the right dog for our family, the one dog in the entire world that even Stephen could love. I figured it would have to be one spectacular specimen since Stephen spent much of his youth in a precarious relationship with dogs…one in which the dogs bit him and he cried. At the time, he was just too young to understand that it was a personality flaw in him, not a problem with the dogs.

“I want a dog that will go out and walk with me,” I’d fantasize, imagining my envious neighbors running to the curb to pet and ogle my impressively beautiful and well-behaved beast every time we strolled by.

“I want a dog that will play ball with me,” Jackson would add dreamily.

One day, when Jackson and I were out walking in the neighborhood, we spotted a teenager playing with an adorable puppy. Of course I stopped to admire the pup…who wouldn’t? She was pumpkin-colored, my favorite, so I couldn’t resist scooping the timid creature into my arms.